Lena and her opposite friend Calabar

Prior to our day of dentistry today, I took Miss Lena Rey out for a little play time in the arena. She obliged my camera habit by being her lovely and photogenic self and obliged herself by rolling extensively in several corners of the arena. Watching her reminded me--again--how different our two horses are.

Watching me watching her

Almost like a reflection of their personalities, their mouths and their attitudes towards being drugged and doctored differ, too.

Calabar's mouth is still a work in progress. The first time we got his teeth done, Leslie said, "If he's ever had his teeth done, I can't tell." That was many years and many floatings ago and we are finally in maintenance mode with him. No ulcers on his cheeks this time, no nasty hook on his back tooth. He is, however, certain that while he is weakened by whatever we've injected into him, SOMETHING will happen. And it is likely to be very, very bad. It is no matter that nothing really bad has actually ever happened to him while in our care. Lena has room to worry, having had Leslie's arm up her rear once and a tube down her nose shortly thereafter. Calabar has had no such experiences and yet his defensiveness persists.

Lena has a mouth as good as her big, thick-walled hooves. She had some hooks today, but she had gone longer between dentist appointments while we did a little in-between work to clean up Calabar's mouth. Leslie was still in and out in maybe 30 minutes. Tops. She was well-drugged, yes, but she still approaches things with a confidence that it will all turn out okay. It probably means she has had many less reasons to doubt her humans than Calabar does, though we have made many (very) long strides in our journey together.

Calabar goes under but is never quite relaxed, still holding his jaw tight and biting the floats Leslie uses at the end to do the final clean up, pushing his tongue into her way. Lena, on the other hand, descends into her happy place and lets Leslie get in and work, no fuss, no argument.

They have had different paths to our family and it shows. I love them both for who they are, as different as they are.

I love Calabar for the many things he has taught me and the many things we have yet to learn.

And I love Lena for her open honesty and trust, as reflected in her lovely and beautiful face.

The lovely Lena Rey

Bar and his big mouth

Today was Calabar's own personal dental day. He did not, however, feel special about being singled out.

If Bar's mouth were as good as Lena's, we could do both horses once a year. Alas, it is not. As it is, though, we can let Lena slide until the next time we have to do Bar, so I guess it all evens out. Well, for Lena and our checkbook it does, Bar is not so sure. Unfortunately for him, there's really no other option.

He has a wave--high in the back, sloping down to the front of his mouth with a hump in the middle along the way--all of this creating hooks that poke holes in his cheeks if left to their own devices.

We found this out the first time he had his teeth done, and it's been a battle to stay on top of it ever since. Luckily, it's a battle we are starting to win. His worst hooks develop way in the back on the bottom and are really difficult to remove, even with Leslie's best power tools. Last fall, Leslie spent a lot of time and energy trying to get Bar's mouth pathology more on the normal scale. This time, she wasn't in there nearly as long and there was a lot less blood. All good things as far as Bar was concerned.

Leslie explained that some teeth have more enamel than others and are fundamentally harder than others. In opposing teeth, this can lead to uneven wear. The uneven wear then builds upon itself and creates more wave, more hooks, and more discomfort.

On top of that, Bar apparently has the biggest mouth Leslie has ever worked with. (I know, like owner, like horse, right?)

He was a trooper until the very end, at which point he did not relax enough to let Leslie slide his jaw laterally to check alignment. No. He clenched his jaw instead. He did let me put my hand all the way inside his cheeks--both sides--to feel the newly smoothed sides of his teeth.

And to add insult to injury, we had to pull his hay out to let the sedation wear off. Poor hungry horse. You can see how starved he was, lipping for spilled grain when Katie and Steve visited later in the day.

Bar would like to say that a few months without seeing the vet would be appreciated, but I would like to say thank you to Dr. Leslie for taking such good care of all my horses--especially the cantankerous and not-always-cooperative Thoroughbred.

Dental day

A healthy mouth is almost as important as good feet in a horse, so we try to stay on top of their dental work. This year, we were a little behind--especially for Bar--but finally got it done on Friday.

As I related after last year's dental day, Lena has a great mouth and Bar has an okay mouth. His wave wasn't as bad this year, but he does actually have a bit of an overbite and that causes the rostral and ventral hooks to show up.

Over an hour and four shots of drugs later, he was in good shape, but it will be better to do him every six months instead so the duration isn't so long each time. His jaw was pretty tired and that's a lot of sedation to put him through, poor guy. Leslie is kind enough to price according to how much work she does and how much time it takes, so the cost won't really increase, it will just be spread out.


Bar wanted out of the stall so badly, I could guide him out almost immediately--though we did rest a little on the way back to his paddock as he came up from sedation. Lena made us wait while she napped a little, though she had seemed to be waking up as Leslie finished up. And she only got two shots!


Glad it's done, though, and it will probably be easier--in a few days, anyway--to get a bit back in Bar's mouth. A couple people have commented that he will probably move better, too, so it will be interesting to see if that is another bonus from all this. Certainly if he isn't protecting himself from the bit, that makes a lot of sense.

All in all, it is a necessary thing for a happy, healthy horse. And it's kind of funny to watch 1,200 pounds of stoned beastie, too.

Dentist day for Bar and Lena

The horses survived a day of dentistry!

Our vet came out to the barn, armed with drugs, her dremel, and hand floats. Leslie was pretty sure Lena's mouth was in good shape--having done Lena's teeth once herself and assisted once, plus checking them periodically--but we had no idea what Bar's mouth would be like.

His was not the worst mouth Leslie had ever seen, but he definitely had some issues. He had a lot of hooks, including caudal hooks way in the back on "tooth number 11" and some pretty severe rostral hooks. He also had a pretty good wave going on in his mouth that will need more attention before next year. This page has some good pictures of the things we found in Bar's mouth. The wave is caused by, then exacerbated by, uneven growth and wear. Leslie took it down a lot and we'll have her back in eight months or so to be sure we're staying on top of it with him.

Horses, like humans, can have good mouths or bad mouths. Lena has a genetically good mouth, but some breeds are known for not being so lucky. Mustangs apparently have (overall) great mouths, which makes sense--natural selection would pretty quickly weed out horses that didn't. Thoroughbreds, not surprisingly, are not known for having good mouths. Bar's isn't deformed (no over-bite or under-bite), and the good news is his teeth do line up beautifully, so with good care we can alleviate a lot of the challenges he has.

Both horses were really well behaved--even with drugs, some horses are not easy to work on. Bar's worst moment was waiting in the stall beforehand while Leslie got the first shot of drugs ready for him, but even though he did a little dancing, he hung in there and listened to me without getting out of control or aggressive. Even when he would start to come around, he didn't fight--and he was in the "chair" for a long time.

Leslie told me she can see how far Bar has come, not only how much he trusts us and how bonded he is to us, but also how much more "in his head" he is than when we first got him. That was a nice compliment, and validates what I see in him. I don't know if the tooth issues have anything to do with his behavior under saddle--and I won't know for a couple days because he's getting a break from the bit for a few days while his mouth heals--but it certainly couldn't have been helping the situation.

Here is a slide show of some of the choice shots from the day:

Lip sores as promised

As promised, here is a picture of one of her now-healing sores. The pink skin you can see is where the rest of them were, now thankfully healing and healthy. Her gums still look a little bit puffy, but all in all, she is looking much better now.

If you really want a good look, click on the picture. It blows up into a really large picture of Lena's mouth and my hand. Really large. Kinda scary large, but good detail nonetheless.



Quite an experience, to say the least.

I'm thinking of sending this post to the dentist who did her teeth back in October. Might be a good thing for him to know about, too. (And maybe he can tell me how to whiten and brighten her teeth!)